An experienced panel discussed ‘Feeding the Superfan Appetite- Sports X Music’ At Music Inc. 2019. Moderator, Ravi Krishnan, CEO & Co-founder, Stepathlon Lifestyle Pvt Ltd., Lydia Buthello, EVP Brand Experience & Events, Star India, Jiggy George, Founder, Dream Theatre, Indranil Blah, CEO, Mumbai City FC, Vivek Nayer, CMO, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mohit Joshi, MD, Havas Media Group, were the panelists.
Opening the discussion on leveraging music for sports the Moderator, Ravi Krishnan, directed the first question to Vivek Nayar, CMO, Mahindra & Mahindra. Krishnan asked him about how the company uses music to drive performance and also commercial viability for their properties.
“In order to continue fan engagement in between races we picked on music and used it to create content to put on social media to engage with fans. We got Formula E drivers to dance to Bollywood Bhangra music. The video took a life of its own. That’s one example of how we’ve used music to engage fans.” Nayar said referring to Mahindra’s international motorsport Formula E.
On the question of whether Indian artists could be seen on a global event, Lydia Buthello, EVP Brand Experience & Events said, “That’s not too far away. Opening ceremonies were not that big in India either until IPL started doing it. Bollywood would come up more since that is what the masses would like to see than niche bands performing. It depends on where you hold your events and what your audiences are looking for. There is huge scope for artists on a global event.
“Sports merchandise is a huge part of the industry even from a fan engagement point of view. Jiggy George, Founder, Dream Theatre, explained, “Music would play an important role. Our brand, Prowl, is a good example of where we intersected music in its promotion. Created an anthem with it. The number of people that went on the Instagram page or pre-purchase exponentially grew. There is a big link between them,” Buthello added.
The panel had general consensus on that ‘independent artists need to be integrated with sports’ and how user-generated content too could play a role in the future.
